


The Ballad of Sentiments and Swamp Potatoes

by superpotterwhorelock



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes - Fandom, The Hunger Games (Movies) RPF
Genre: District 12 (Hunger Games), Hunger Games, Hunger Games References, Inspired by The Hunger Games, Kid Fic, Love, Parent Katniss Everdeen, Post-Games (Hunger Games), Pre-Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins, coriolanus snow - Freeform, katniss - Freeform, lucy gray baird - Freeform, maude ivory, parenting, sejnaus, the Seam, the covey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:54:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25138024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/superpotterwhorelock/pseuds/superpotterwhorelock
Summary: Maude Ivory is enjoying a day at the lake with her son, years after the ending of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes takes place. While visiting a place her and the other Covey has visited most, she can't help but get sucked into the memories of that time and a girl she once knew
Comments: 2
Kudos: 23





	The Ballad of Sentiments and Swamp Potatoes

**Author's Note:**

> ** SPOILERS AHEAD**  
> This work contains some spoilers for the ending of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

“Momma”  
“Sure, baby?”   
“Can you sing it again?”  
Maude Ivory smiled to herself as she brushed the dark locks off of her son’s forehead. His gray eyes shone up at her and her heart melted all over again. It hurt less every time she sang this song. She had avoided it for so long; having a child of her own to take care of is what inspired her to relay it again. She sang to him when he was sick or hurting, just as Lucy Gray had done when she had raised her. With a familiar pang of longing, but with less of the debilitating sadness that had accompanied the lyrics previously, she began.   
“Deep in the meadow, under the willow  
A bed of grass. A soft green pillow . . .”   
She knew the song more than by heart; she knew it by soul. Thus, she allowed her mind to wander as she crooned. It was a late summer day as they lay near the lake. She had come here so often since finding Lucy Gray’s survival supplies abandoned in the cabin. At first it had been in hopes that her cousin would come back to get the supplies she’d hastily left behind. As time went on it became a sadistically comforting area. A place where she could come to alone just to relish in the knowledge that Lucy Gray was gone forever. It was a place where she could use her grief as an excuse again once life started getting back to normal in the Seam. Now it was merely the place where she felt closest to her lost cousin.   
The irony was not lost on Maude Ivory that the very story Lucy Gray was named for is the ending that had become of her. That was the worst part by far. Back all those years ago-- what was it now? 13?-- the Covey had gone out looking for her after she hadn’t returned from procuring a goat. Too many hours had passed to make it seem like a normal amount of time needed for such a task. They were justifiably worried, especially with Mayor Lipp hanging around in front of their abode constantly.   
Even though it was so many years ago, she could still recall the events of the day clearly. They had found their way to the Hanging Tree, a place featured on one of her most, in Maude Ivory’s opinion, beautiful songs. There they had found a familiar wagon abandoned by the creaky old tree. They didn’t need to discuss it further to knew what it meant, and without a word between the group they headed into the woods to search. Several hours later brought them to the lake they’d been to so many times. There, they spread out their search, not knowing which way she would’ve gone forward from the open area. That’s when Tam Amber discovered what she’d left.   
“I like that song, momma.” Her son’s honey voice drew her back to the present. The mockingjays had picked up her tune and had carried it deep into the woods. “The birds are singing with you. Momma. The mockingers.”   
She couldn’t help but grin at his innocence. He was smart for four, but he just couldn’t keep their names straight.   
“Mockingjays, sweetheart.” His head lay on her lap. They had almost been done with their picnic at the lake when he tripped and scraped his knee, coaxing forth the song that had just been performed.   
“Mockingjays.” He repeated to himself. With that information he started humming a tune of his very own, seeing if they’d pick it up.   
“You’re gonna be a wonderful singer. It’s in your blood.” She whispered down at him. His smile up at her was the only response necessary. Until it faded suddenly and was replaced by a question.  
“Why don’t you like that song again, mommy?” Maude Ivory had always been upfront with her child from a young age. Truth and trust were always deemed the most important in her household.   
“I don’t not like it, dear. It just reminds me of your auntie still after all these years.”  
“My auntie Lucy?”  
“Lucy Gray” she gently corrected.   
“Lucy Gray” he mimicked like a jabberjay. “Lucy Gray” he repeated over and over as his little boy energy suddenly caused him to bounce up and skip off.   
Her son looked like her, but he looked more like his father. It wasn’t the first boy she’d ever loved, but it was the first one that she’d been old enough for to actually matter. After they were forced to stop doing shows at the Hob, Maude Ivory and the other Covey were reduced to selling butter door to door in between secret concerts. That’s when she ran into the most handsome coal miner she’d ever met. While it wasn’t a rule that Covey had to marry someone Covey, they still disapproved at first, especially when she had chosen to forgo the tradition of Covey names when it came to their son.   
“There’s no color? Where’s the story?” Barb Azure asked.   
“Does this mean you ain’t Covey no more?” Clerk Carmine inquired.  
She assured them she always would be, and regardless of their inquiries she knew they accepted her name choice and loved that child as their own.   
“Look what I found!” the voice inflected up and down to match the skips as Maude Ivory’s son returned to her side. “It’s a swamp potato flower!”   
Maude Ivory took in the delicate white petals and said absentmindedly: “It’s a katniss flower.”  
“Katniss?”   
“Yeah, yeah, katniss.” She plucked the flower from his fingers and held it out for them both to see in the sunlight. “Your aunt Lucy Gray always thought katniss had a better ring to it than swamp potato.”  
“A better ring to it. Yeah, it does have a better ring to it. Katniss. It’s pretty.”   
“That it is, dear.”  
“I think when I’m older, like you, and have a kid, I’m gonna name her Katniss. Would that make you happy, momma? Because it will remind you of that lady?”   
Tears welled up in her light eyes at the beauty of such a child. Oh how she adored him.  
“Yes it would. It would make me very happy.”   
“I love you, momma.” When he said it, she leaned down and kissed the top of his head, the gravity forcing the first tear to actually fall and land among his dark locks.  
“I love you too, Sejanus.”


End file.
